


resolvence

by presumenothing (justjoy)



Category: Leagues and Legends - E. Jade Lomax
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, vague spoilers for the series in general?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 18:52:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17473067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justjoy/pseuds/presumenothing
Summary: Grey frowned. “But why you?” he said.“What?” said Rupert.—echoes of a giantkiller,chapter sixteen(Jack, Rupert, and the rhyme of reason.)





	resolvence

“Grey had it the wrong way round, I think,” Jack said aloud one morning, sitting at the table of the apartment they’d finally gotten around to renting together – and then only because Rupert had made a production of penning in _HOUSE HUNTING_ across all four of their schedules in non-negotiable block letters, after their sixth attempt had fallen through by way of last-minute scheduling on Laney’s part and then Grey’s. 

Even then it had taken ages (and all their luck combined, Laney had said only half-jokingly) to find a place like this, with four bedrooms opening out onto a shared space that still had room enough for Grey to spread his books in concentric mazes around him, or less often to fit a bedroll or two (because sometimes that was still the way in which Jack slept best and because George dropped by from St. John’s Port on her breaks, and neither of them objected to the fact that this was warmer than most anything they’d slept on, what with the clusters of runes newly-etched in each corner).

(The kitchen stove did not double as a brewing station except in emergencies or when it was one of them needing a potion. Nurse and Rue were still arguing far too companionably over the layout of the new permanent infirmary but Jack’s corner of it wasn’t in question, across from the med station that reminded him of the one at Wen’s soup kitchen except this one was open at almost all hours.

Their joint proposal for a weekly potions-brewing class had been tabled for now but Jack was hopeful. Sally-Anne agreed that there wouldn’t be a shortage of people interested to learn, once things had settled and they could ensure a supply of herbs steady enough to allow for beginners’ failures – which there always were, albeit some more salvageable than others.)

Across the table Rupert was addressing an envelope in a neat hand, copying out from the mental list of contacts he somehow managed to keep current despite everything that had changed – everything that was _still_ changing. Jack wondered if he remembered the address in Jill’s looping cursive or his own spindly script. 

“What about?” Rupert asked.

“Why my luck brought us together. Why them, why you.”

Rupert finished writing and flipped the envelope over to slot in a colourful pamphlet: the illustrated fold-out guide to coffee machines he’d found in a (relatively) quieter corner of Nightmarket. “I didn’t know you’d heard that part.”

Jack shrugged; no one ever did. “Most mages and sages probably couldn’t have handled everything that came after, that’s true, and of course they’re so much more than that, but… I think they were Liam’s sister and – and Cassandra Graves’ brother first, before everything else. Not you, though.”

“Never me,” agreed Rupert dryly. “Alas.”

“You know what I mean. I came to the Academy to learn how to be a better hero. And I did, even if it wasn’t in the way I expected.” Jack drained the last of his tea and thought about how to say it. “But you – and Sez and Sally-Anne and even the Knights, but mostly you – you showed me the _why_. Hadn’t thought I’d needed reminding but I did. Never got around to thanking you for that, so. Thanks, Rupe.”

The floor was warm as ever beneath his bare foot, and Jack thought sometimes that they’d charmed it anti-slip as well, or maybe that _was_ just him getting better at all of this. Sometimes he thought that it was worth all the luck he could ever get in this life and the next, to have made the friends he had.

He watched Rupert push his papers into small stacks that would go on to finally start that literacy programme or outline Lower Rivertown’s monthly budget or perhaps eventually land in some faraway mailbox, still addressed personally by name in that neat slant. Somewhere in the background there was the sound of snoring breaths that meant Grey was still asleep and the absence of another which meant that Laney had just woken up.

“I think you never really forgot to begin with,” Rupert said finally, consideringly, “but you’re welcome, anyway.”

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> alternative title: i bingeread this entire series waaaaay too fast and i regret nothing, 10000/10 would read again


End file.
